Canberra: Two sisters testified before an Australian court on Wednesday that the principal of their Jewish school had sexually assaulted them, which had damaged their ability to trust and made remembering it painful.
After battling for years to avoid being extradited from Israel, Malka Leifer was found guilty of rape and other crimes in April at the Victoria state County Court. She carefully followed the two sisters reading victim impact statements at her sentencing hearing via a video link from behind bars, but she remained silent.
Dassi Erlich, 35, was placed in the courtroom on purpose so she and Leifer could see one another as she discussed the effects of the abuse, as both Erlich and Leifer had requested.
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Erlich claimed that Leifer told her at the age of 16: "I love you like a mother."
Erlich declared, "I had complete faith in her." "The subtlety of her sexual abuse has permanently damaged my capacity for trust."
Elly Sapper, 34, later admitted to the court that she had wondered if she really wanted to go through the trauma that has impacted more than half her life again.
It hurts to think back. I'll never be able to express how much it hurts," Sapper said.
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Sapper stated during her testimony at Leifer's trial that she had lost a baby a week prior to the results. She made no mention of the specifics.
Sapper reported that "her heart stopped beating." "There were no abnormalities or clear-cut solutions. I'll never know if the years of trauma, worry, stress, or anxiety had anything to do with my daughter's passing.
Leifer was cleared of nine charges, including five involving Nicole Meyer, the victims' eldest sister. Meyer, 37, joined her sisters in court on Wednesday.
The sisters have chosen to use their real names in the media despite the fact that The Associated Press typically does not identify actual or alleged victims of sexual abuse.
Leifer grinned when Judge Mark Gamble informed her that she would have to respond to inquiries made in court rather than simply nodding.
When asked about her job by Gamble's associate, Leifer responded, "Now I'm not working."
Leifer, 56, was found guilty of six counts of rape, each carrying a potential 25-year prison sentence. She was found guilty of six counts of indecent assault, which carries a 10-year sentence, as well as three counts of sexual penetration of a child, each of which carries a potential 10-year sentence. She was found guilty on three counts of engaging in an obscene act with a child, which carries a five-year prison sentence.
The extradition dispute that strained ties between the Australian and Israeli governments and enraged Australia's Jewish community was resolved by Leifer's trial.
Leifer, who was born in Tel Aviv, left the country in 2008 as the first accusations against her surfaced. She fought against being extradited in Jerusalem courts since 2014, but her fight came to an end in 2021 when she boarded a flight for Melbourne while still being shackled at the wrists and ankles at Ben Gurion Airport.
The Adass Israel School, an ultra-Orthodox school in Melbourne where Leifer was head of religion and later principal, as well as her Melbourne home and at rural school camps, allegedly engaged in child abuse between 2003 and 2007.
Leifer felt alone in her prison because she was the only Orthodox Jew, according to defence attorney Ian Hill. She was prohibited from possessing images of any of her 17 grandchildren or any other children because she had been found guilty of crimes involving child sex.
"She is a truly lonely, isolated, and broken woman held in protective custody in a maximum security prison far from her culture, far from her religion, and significantly far from her family, all of whom live overseas," Hill said.
When Leifer visited her in prison, a former classmate from the Melbourne school reported that she had become "angry and agitated and she had gone from being an upbeat, inspiring educator to an isolated, depressed shadow of her former self," Hill said.
She constantly feels fear. She experiences hallucinations, nightmares, and believes that the guards are out to get her. She chooses to spend the day... in her cell with the door locked from the inside because every loud noise sends her body trembling, Hill said, quoting the prison visitor.
Prior to her extradition, Leifer had been detained for more than five years in Israel and Australia, as well as for 20 months while under house arrest there, according to Hill.
Apart from a son and daughter who had visited her while she was incarcerated, she had not seen her family since.
The sentencing hearing for Leifer is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. She will probably be sentenced later.
